Security Breach!! - (Korea) Day 172

Yellow Dust! This is our office car the day after there has been a lot of yellow dust in the air.
When it's in the air you don't really notice. The city just looks like there is a lot of smog.
When it all settles is when you really notice it. Makes me not want to go outside
and inhale all this crap!

Work call this morning was at 0800. For some reason Special K wanted us in that early even though our first meeting was at 0945. Usually we come in an hour before the meeting or at 0830 whichever is earlier. We all arrive a bit early and by 0810 we had everything setup and prepared for the 0945 meeting. After that we just sat in the conference control room watching TV and waiting for the meeting to start.

I stayed in the control room during the meeting and watched the NBA playoffs once again. I watched all the way until lunch time and then headed to my room. My roommate was still asleep because he had CQ last night, so I made sure to tip-toe around and be extra quite. I know it sucks to have your sleep interrupted.

When I got back to work I checked my email, surfed the internet, and printed out my 10 SkillPort certificates for my sergeant. We had another small meeting that went on in our conference room, but we didn't have to do much except flip slides. I came out when the meeting had just started and didn't think much of it, I thought it was just another meeting….boy was I wrong. We were told that after the meeting was over we could clean up and leave early for the day. SPC Mick left for a CQ briefing and was gone for the day. Special K had me go with him to the shoppette to purchase some beer for him. I had our KATUSA take over flipping the slides for the meeting. Special K had met his allotment for alcohol this month, but still needed a couple cases for a trip he was planning this weekend. So I purchased some for him since I don't buy too much alcohol and never hit my limit. Special K took off for the day.

When I got back in the office I was confronted by our IMO and the air force sergeant in my office. They asked who loaded the slides on the computers for the last meeting. I said SPC Mick did before he left. Well SPC Mick didn't ask if it was classified or secret material and it turns out that it was. In this case they have to bring their own laptops to display this information. It can not go on our unclassified computers in the conference room. Now I had to take out the hard drives and put in a trouble ticket to have them securely wiped and re-imaged for the machines. Until this is done the hard drives have to be stored in a safe with the other classified and secret material. What a pain. Let's hope this can get done first thing Monday morning. I called SPC Mick and politely reminded him not to put classified or secret material on our conference room computers. Grrrrrr.

I then went back to the office and found out that someone had broke a key off in a door to a very small conference room in our building. Normally this would be a project for Special K, since he was already gone they gave it to me. I had to find a building on post and take the pieces of this key in hopes that they could create a new one. They printed out a piece of paper and told me to go to another building. I took it and left heading off to this other building. When I arrived the guy looked at it and signed the paper and then told me to head off to yet another building. He had to copy a map of the post and show me how to get there. I arrived and handed the locksmith my piece of signed paper and the broken key. He made two copies and then met me back at my office to test them on the door. Success! What a pain in the butt though!!

I cleaned up the office and left at 1700…so much for leaving early, but I can't complain at least I wasn't leaving late. When I got to my room I ate dinner and watched a movie. The movie is called "Locked Down". The movie is totally a "B" movie with pretty bad…errr terrible acting, but I wanted to watch it because it was presented by TapOut and had a number of UFC fighters in the movie such as Kimbo Slice, Rashad Evans, Cheick Kongo, & Forrest Griffin. The plot is a little silly as well, but that of course is not why I wanted to see it. I wanted to see the fighting action. The story is about a cop who is framed and sent to jail. This jail happens to have cage fighting events and the cop happens to be a great fighter. Throw in a couple half naked chicks and you got yourself a "B" movie. Funny to watch for the MMA fan, but I wouldn't recommend it for anyone else.

After the movie it was schoolwork time. I spent a while doing schoolwork and plan to spend a lot more time tomorrow as well. I am glad I only have two classes left this year, I'm looking forward to a break. I'm starting to get a little burned out.

I am also getting a lot of headaches lately. I think it's from the sit-ups I did during my PT test a little over a week ago. I know i was yanking on my neck a lot. It could be because I'm sleeping wrong on my neck or something as well. Whatever it is, it's causing me to eat Excedrin like they're candy. I hate it. I felt like having a beer tonight as well, but I've already used up my quota when I purchased all that beer for Special K earlier. I don't feel like going out to a bar either. Let's see what tomorrow brings.

Weekend Wrap-Up - (Korea) Days 109 & 110

A view of the packed subway car we were in...people everywhere!

Saturday: I love weekends…I love sleeping in! After waking up, I did my normal Saturday routine of laundry and cleaning my room. I then video chatted with my wife for a while before doing some schoolwork. I met up with the young hawaiian for lunch at The Pizza School. I love that place, the pizza is pretty good and it's very cheap.

I heard that yellow sand was higher than normal today. SPC Roy had called me and told me that I may not want to hang outside too long today because of it. We were told about yellow sand during our in-processing. It looks just like smog around the city. The USFK website shows the current levels each day. It's basically a big dust storm that starts in China and blows down to South Korea. There are fine dry soil particles as well as pollutants from China in it, so it can be a little unhealthy to hang outside when it's high. It's also not a good idea to do any sort of physical activity if possible. I don't know if it was the power of suggestion or what, but I was finding it a little harder to breathe. I feel like I have a chest cold or something. SPC Roy mentioned that sometimes if there is yellow sand around (but not enough for a warning to go out) and we do a PT test, it makes it pretty tough to run the two mile. He said it feels like you're trying to breathe with someone sitting on your chest. Sounds like fun.

The young hawaiian and I decided to try something new and adventurous. We took the subway again and made our way to the COEX mall. This time we headed the right direction and made the switch to the correct subway line when needed in order to get there. The mall is huge. We had a good time just walking around and checking everything out. People watching is interesting as well. There is also a casino attached to the mall and we checked that out too. The young hawaiian showed me his favorite game of chance…baccarat. We played it a little while with $20 each. I just gave him my money and we agreed to split the winnings. I just wanted to see how the heck the game was played. After reaching around $250 with dreams of steak dinner in my eyes, we ended up giving it all back to the casino and instead we had $6 dinners that night. Luckily the mall had a lot of great places to eat and they didn't cost too much. Even though we lost, it was fun playing and learning the game somewhat.

SPC Roy called and decided to meet us at the mall on his way home from his in-laws. We had a few drinks and then we all went home.

Sunday: After sleeping in, I brewed my coffee and had breakfast. I then video chatted with my wife for a while. Just the easy going mornings with my coffee while video chatting with my wife is one of my favorite times during the week. I went over to the other barracks to watch the UFC fight which because of daylight savings now comes on at 1100, which still isn't bad. I was amazed at Jon Jones. I hadn't really watched too much of him before, but this guy has such a reach advantage nobody can get close to him. He just destroyed Shogun and took the championship belt from him with ease it seemed. Very impressing!

I then did a little schoolwork, video chatted with my wife some more and then went out with PFC Pickle. We had dinner at the food court and then went to the theatre to watch The Dilemma. A romantic comedy that was pretty decent. It's about a guy who finds his best friend's wife is cheating on him. He has to decide if he should tell his friend or wait until they finish a big deal first.

On the walk back SPC Roy called me and asked me to stop by the office to see when the first meeting is, that will decide when our work call is. I did and found out that there is a meeting at 0700…bummer, that means work call is at 0600. It seems no matter how early we go in, we always still get off at the same time or later.